I’ve worked this format twice out of necessity – once because I didn’t have a clue about what to expect from Georgia and once because Missouri and Texas A&M came in with clean slates – and I’m sticking with it. “It” being described as follows:

Rather than give you my predicted records, I’ll list the schools in the order they finished in the conference last year, look at areas of potential improvement and decline and assess in what direction I expect each to go by comparison to 2010.

In other words, pure seat of the pants BS.

So starting with last season as the baseline (teams are listed in their 2012 order of finish), here goes nothing.

Outlook: You want to be the one who predicts the Tide doesn’t play in the SECCG? Be my guest. I’m having a hard enough time figuring out which regular season game ‘Bama loses. It won’t be any worse than that.

Outlook: Early CW: Expect LSU to have a down year because of the departures on defense. Late CW: don’t sleep on LSU! My CW: LSU does what it tends to do under Miles – lose two regular season games, one in an inexplicable fashion.

Outlook: Between the empty personnel cupboard left to Bielema and the tough cross-divisional draws of South Carolina and Florida, this shapes up to be a long season. I’m having a hard time seeing how the Hogs top last year’s win total.

AUBURN (3-9, 0-8)

Pros: Departure of old staff; return of Malzahn; solid recruiting; special teams

Cons: Implementation of new offensive and defensive schemes; change at quarterback (again)

Outlook: Last year’s team gave up on Chizik and his staff, so a change is likely for the good. Reasonable goal should be achieving bowl eligibility.

SEC EAST

GEORGIA (12-2, 7-1)

Pros: Coaching continuity; offense; quarterback experience

Cons: Losses on defense; special teams; early season schedule

Outlook: Can the Dawgs get out of September with no more than one loss? If so, an eleven-win regular season and a return trip to Atlanta is likely. I’d like to say that’s what will happen, but I wonder if special teams cost Georgia a game it would otherwise win.

Outlook: IMO, hardest team in the conference to handicap. Yes, the Gators can win in double digits again. Yes, the Gators could lose four games. Keys will be keeping Driskel and the running backs healthy and maintaining something close to last year’s impressive turnover margin.

Outlook: They get the leg up on surviving a loss in the game against Georgia this year. Best thing the ‘Cocks have going for them is that they won’t see another conference team after Georgia that can challenge their secondary. SC won’t do worse than ten wins in the regular season.

Outlook: Injuries decimated this team last season. Missouri is in better shape going into 2013. Between the OOC slate to start the season and Kentucky, there are five likely wins on the schedule. That leaves three games – Vandy, Tennessee and Ole Miss – to decide the Tigers’ bowl eligibility fate. Assuming Mizzou can dodge the injury bug that was so devastating last year, a seven-win season feels about right.

TENNESSEE (5-7, 1-7)

Pros: November schedule; offensive line; some front line defensive talent

Cons: Dearth of quality skill position players; transition to new offensive and defensive schemes; brutal mid-season schedule with five preseason top ten teams; defensive depth

Outlook: This will make the third straight year UT implements a new defensive scheme. And even though the Vols finish with their usual soft landing in November, you wonder how much gas they’ll have left in the tank after getting running that mid-season gauntlet. Bowl eligibility is about as much as you can expect.

KENTUCKY (2-10, 0-8)

Pros: Defensive line

Cons: Lack of quality talent on both sides of the ball; coaching staff change; schedule with five preseason top ten opponents

Outlook: What I wrote last year about the Wildcats – “Remember that Seinfeld episode when Elaine is horrified by the realization that she’s turned into George? Well, Kentucky has turned into Vanderbilt. It’s hard to see where the ‘Cats get a conference win, or beat Louisville. Three wins, tops.” – hasn’t changed. UK has the worst personnel in the conference and that isn’t something you fix overnight.

I agree, no way in hell UK wins 6 games. I set the over/under for them at 3.5.

Saturday will firm up my opinions on the East, I think the Dawgs will win and I think the Chickens will as well although I think both games will be close. It will be interesting to see if there is anything we can exploit on the Chicken defense in week 2.

Just a hunch based on my observation over the years that teams coming off a really bad year/coaching job tend to overachieve the following year with a new staff. I also think Miss St and Missouri could be in “throw-in-the-towel” mode by the point Kentucky appears on the schedule.

Quote Of The Day

“He had some good pointers,” Smart said about Saban’s advice on dealing with the quarterback battle. “But I’ll keep that between he and I. I’m always looking for good advice especially dealing with the quarterback situation.” — Dawgs247, 5/16/18